A thermal effect (e.g., a thermal expansion and/or a thermal contraction caused by temperature change, heat, movement, etc.) may distort a measurement (e.g., a force reading, a strain reading, etc.) of a sensor (e.g., a load cell, a capacitive sensor, a strain gauge, etc.). For example, thermal expansion may be a tendency of matter to change in volume in response to a change in temperature. When the sensor is heated, its constituent particles may move around more and by doing so generally may maintain a greater average separation. The degree of expansion divided by the change in temperature can be referred to as a coefficient of thermal expansion (e.g., generally varies with temperature).
The thermal effect may cause a surface (e.g., a plate) of the sensor to move out of place. For example, the surface may expand when heat is present and/or may compress when the surface is cooled. The surface may not return to a previous location (e.g., because of the thermal expansion coefficient of the surface may be high, and/or may not be well matched to a housing of the sensor). As a result, a measurement (e.g., force reading, a capacitance, a resistance etc.) of the sensor may be altered because of the thermal effect. This may make the sensor inaccurate for use in certain conditions where high precision is required.
Similarly, sometimes a load (e.g., a force) may be placed on the surface of the sensor at an off-center location (e.g., not in the middle, on the edge, etc). The load may cause a tilt (e.g., a lean, an incline, a slope, a slant, etc.) of the surface of the sensor, and may result in an inaccurate measurement (e.g., an area between plates may be distorted because of the tilt in a capacitive sensor). As a result, the measurement of the sensor may be inaccurate because of both the thermal effect and the tilt.